No classic, but it's Tyne's cup

The Rugby Football Union won themselves no friends in Northumberland when they decreed that the county's No 1 referee Dave Pearson couldn't referee his own County Senior Cup final at Kingston Park last night.

The Rugby Football Union won themselves no friends in Northumberland when they decreed that the county's No 1 referee Dave Pearson couldn't referee his own County Senior Cup final at Kingston Park last night.

Pearson is a full time professional referee used to dealing with the leading lights of the Zurich Premiership and conjecture locally is that the RFU considered he was in danger of contamination if he had soiled his whistle by taking a match between teams from National Division Three North and North Two East.

Certainly last night's game could have done with Mr Pearson's magic touch as the hapless official in charge distinguished himself only by brandishing a red, instead of a yellow, card at Tynedale lock Andrew Robson for a sin-binning offence. At least this temporary act of colour-blindness could be rectified, which is more than can be said of some of his other decisions and, to be honest, the players of both sides deserved better.

That said, both sides played their part in a lacklustre match, with Tynedale's players virtually out on their feet after a long, hard season and Morpeth, who play two leagues lower down, lacking the edge to turn possession and territory into points, especially when Tynedale were twice down to 14 men through sin-binning.

They also paid dearly for the decision to go for a try when awarded a penalty just to the left of the posts in the first half rather than kick the three points.

Morpeth were trailing 0-7 at the time to an excellent try by Tynedale's Scottish Under-21 international Paul Boston, converted by fellow Scot No 8 Jamie Murray, who had assumed the kicking duties from Phil Belgian because of the fly half's knee injury.

It was an excellent try coming from a five metre scrum, a blindside break and a quick switch to the open. However whether Tynedale should have had the put-in at the scrum is open to question as Morpeth had stopped Tynedale's lineout rolling maul infield and by rights appeared to be due the scrum advantage.

That said, the game was only 28 minutes old when Morpeth made the fateful decision to go for the try rather than the three points and it was ultimately to cost them the match.

For in the space of two minutes (54-56) in the second half Morpeth wing Greg Dawson kicked two penalties, the second from 40 metres, and after 75 minutes he was just short with a long-range attempt.

Ironically Tynedale enjoyed much the better of the second half when Morpeth seemed to tire but try as they might, they couldn't get over the line nor could they kick their goals.

And the best move of the game came when Morpeth lock Paul Scott picked up a loose kick inside his own half and sprinted down the right touchline. Scott in full flow takes some stopping and it was fortunate for Tynedale that Boston, by far the best player on the field, was the one who got back to haul him down 10 metres short of the line.

The young centre had managed to score and prevent the tries which returned the Cup to Corbridge but even the most die-hard Tynedale supporter will admit it was not one of the club's many epic final performances.